Can't run anymore
by niuxen
Summary: "Well, here you are, Dinosaurella." A soft, male voice broke the silence of the night, accompanied by a slight chuckle. "You lost your snakeskin slipper," Owen Grady himself said, approaching Claire with one of her shoes in his hand.
1. Chapter 1

Claire Dearing felt like she was sitting on hot coal, while the walls of a rather big conference room at Masrani Corp. were closing in on her. She tried not to show her restlessness and slowly let out a deep breath, she never felt keeping in her lungs. Vivian and Lowery were sitting at her sides, while Barry was spread out on two and half chairs behind them. It has been almost four and half hours of yet another testifying day for her, Owen and other park administration employees. Masrani Corp. board opened an internal audit concerning Indominus rex breaking out of its cage, while fully operating it in a joint, international investigation lead by US Department of Justice. Thereby, both Claire and Owen were happy to hear they would be spared repeating their testimonies hundreds of times in cases against InGen and other individuals involved.

Lowery was long asleep, drifting away after the very first 30 minutes of the deposition. His head was now impending over Claire's right shoulder, in contrast to Vivian who was repeating chunks of her own testimony under her breath and was almost jumping in her seat. Truth be told Claire wasn't really listening to the deposition either, knowing almost word by word what Owen would say. She kept getting lost in her thoughts, Barry's commentary in French bringing her back to reality from time to time.

Claire steadied her breath and focused her eyes on Owen, who was recounting his version of the Isla Nublar events to the investigation committee. He was bombarded with questions focusing on exact moment when Claire asked him to look at the new dinosaur, by Mr. Masrani's order. She remembered driving to his bungalow that early afternoon and finding him forearms deep in his motorcycle. Her right eyebrow instinctively rose up at the thought, that back then she would had never expect to see Owen Grady in a full, three pieces suit.

And boy, did he wear them a lot last weeks.

Whilst Claire still had a job, Owen had none without his animals and lately he spent most of his free time looking for one. Claire knew he was not particularly excited at the perspective of working with other animals than dinosaurs, but he had to adapt until the board and authorities decided on next steps concerning park's future.

While Claire definitely appreciated the steel-colored suit she helped him pick out this morning, she really missed those dark jeans along with unbuttoned, beige shirt that perfectly exposed his forearms.

Immediately, she recalled the day Claire Dearing met Owen Grady.

-x-

 _2014_

The first time Claire saw Owen, he was wearing those exact clothes. She secretly fell in love with that style on spot. He was on the raptors nursery pasture, his back facing her and potential Velociraptor sponsor, whom she was giving a tour to.

"Our newest techniques posit that by the time the raptors enter adulthood, at least three out of four should recognize our animal trainer as their alpha," Claire exalted then. "Currently, as you can see, our assets are still a bit too young for that, each around 3 months old. Our trainer is more of foster-mother to them than anything else." She smiled apologetically. "However, their training was started early, just after their first month."

"Well that's definitely something worth looking at," Natalie Benton replied and drew near the window, watching closely Owen play with the little dinosaurs. "And I'm not talking about the dinosaurs only." She looked at Claire suggestively, raising an eyebrow.

A shadow of unprofessional blush ran across Clare's face at Natalie's words. She did not reply and led Natalie downstairs to her to the new animal trainer.

The two women approached the entrance to the pasture and Claire entered her security code.

"Consider that soon we won't be able to waltz in here like that," Claire remarked and held the door open for Natalie.

As they approached the den, Claire stayed a bit behind Natalie and pulled her phone out to find the old mail about their new worker assigned to the raptors she got from InGen 4 months ago. _Owen Grady_ , _Owen Grady_ , she repeated in her mind. _Looks shaggy, but is very professional,_ Claire already started analyzing the man in her head.

"Mr. Grady," she called, putting her most business voice on. "We haven't met yet, my name is Claire Dearing, I'm the operational manager here, and this," she looked over to dark-haired woman, "is Natalie Benton, from New Interplay Inc."

The dark-blonde man stood up from the ground to greet them, while petite reptiles wandered at his feet, hissing at each other.

He smiled warmly at both of them, unconditionally causing an appreciative feeling flash through Claire's chest. "I'm sorry, I would shake your hands but I'm afraid I'm covered in too much dirt and raptor saliva," he explained and wiped his hands in a very dirty towel on his shoulder. "How can I help you?"

"Ms. Benton wanted to ask about some… technicalities regarding our raptors. It would be great if you could answer a couple of questions," Claire suggested.

While Owen was patiently replying all of Natalie's questions, Claire focused on quickly skimming through new e-mails on her phone. Suddenly she felt a slight pinch at her ankle. It was hard enough to make her squeal like a 5-year-old girl.

"Blue!" The young trainer yelled. In a matter of seconds Owen was by her side, one unruly baby-raptor immediately safely landed under his arm.

"I'm sorry, they are way past mascot stage," Owen apologized, but failed at making a convincing sorry face. Instead, he watched her with mischievous interest until the end of their visit. Claire felt a shiver down her spine, his hard gaze following the two businesswomen as they headed back to Claire's car.

In the following months when she got to know Owen, it certainly did not escape her notice how easy on the eye was the former Navy soldier. His openness and laid-back attitude would not bother Claire that much, had it been restrained to outside-work hours. There was something annoying in his playfulness towards thin group of women in staff. During these months Claire was too preoccupied with her job to notice she was the one his flaunts were directed at.

Claire started avoiding the Velociraptors attraction as much as she could while still fulfilling her park's operations manager obligations. Weeks later, when it was absolutely unescapable, Claire finally met Owen during a Halloween party organized by the company for the island employees. Most of the evening she spend hitched to Vivian alone. Her eyes however kept deceiving her and followed the one man she wanted out of her head. When Claire felt Champagne-drunk enough, she escaped the painful view of a bunch of oceanarium girls laughing ridiculously loud at Owen's jokes. She excused herself and headed for her quarters.

She walked the empty corridors of the hotel, her high-heels in her left hand and suddenly felt mood for fresh air. She dropped into the terrace on 4th floor, sat down at the nearest table and enjoyed 2 AM air for a little while.

"Well here you are, Dinosaurella." A soft, male voice broke the silence of the night, accompanied by a slight chuckle. "You lost your snakeskin slipper," Owen Grady himself said, approaching Claire with one of her shoes in his hand.

"Thank you, it must have slipped through my fingers," she replied, a slight hiccough caused by too much champagne following her words. Owen's eyes widened a little when a giggle escaped her lips.

"Dinosaurella," she repeated. "That's definitely some better idea for next year's party," Claire admitted and pointed at her simple dress in Minnie Mouse style. She removed her mouse ears and placed them on the table.

"On the other hand I really dig those painted whiskers," he admitted and pointed at her face, before sitting down at the other side of the little table. "I don't think you could pull them of with Dinosaurella."

Claire waved her hand. "Please, look at yourself, Mr. Flintstone. You really put a lot of energy into your costume, didn't you?" she wondered out loud and admired his sleeveless outfit.

In a thousand lifetimes Owen Grady would not be able to explain to anyone how vividly her eyes were shining in that moment.

He grinned widely and started explaining to her the process of picking out the right costume idea and completing it. Soon they eased into conversation and started talking about almost anything that came to their minds.

It was around 5 AM when she sobered up a bit and finally looked at her watch. Owen Grady was such a smooth interlocutor; she could not tell when the last three hours had fled by. However, Claire felt inevitable tiredness winning her over from head to toes. At one point, she yawned heavily and half-closed her eyes, barely sitting straight up.

"I am just about that boring, aren't I?" Owen teased.

"No, it's not that," Claire objected, though did not stop another yawn escaping her mouth. "I'm sorry, I had meetings today basically from 7 AM up until… 8 PM I think." She frowned and noticed him looking funnily at the top of her nose.

"Of course," he answered in lenient tone. The next moment he rose from his seat and held out his hand to Claire. "I'll walk you to your room, you can't exactly be sure if one of our cold-blooded wards isn't taking a stroll down the hotel kitchen right this moment."

Claire rolled her eyes but smiled while taking his hand. "I'm sure it's not."

They took a staircase to the 5th floor, where her apartment was, never letting go their hands. When they reached her door, Claire found out it was suddenly hard for her to finally say goodbye.

"Go out with me," Owen breathed, hovering over her and stroked one, red forelock out of her face. She was standing barefoot at her door threshold and wondered what kind of magical powers had afflicted her.

Claire nodded slightly and licked her lips. "I'll check with my calendar and get back to you with suitable date, okay?"

"Okay."

"But you're in luck," she teased, keeping a serious tone, "with current events going on, I should have some free time around February."

Owen narrowed his eyes. "Not funny."

"It is a bit," she giggled. "Thank you for escorting me, Mr. Grady."

"My pleasure, Ms. Dearing." Owen smiled longingly at her. After a couple of quiet seconds, he finally headed for the elevator. "Don't think I won't hold you to this," he said pointing a finger at her and pushed the elevator button down.

"I wouldn't think otherwise," she remarked with laugh and closed the door behind her. She stood there for a while, analyzing last couple of hours. What did she get herself into?

In the morning, she let herself be lazy for a bit and stayed in bed until 12 AM. She even asked the breakfast to be delivered right to her room. It was very unlike her, but she hadn't had that good sleep since… she started her job at Jurassic World.

When she finally got up, she called Zara about some minor issues and scheduled their rounds for 3 PM.

Claire took her time writing reports in matted bed, while nibbling on croissant and some fruits. She nearly landed on the floor with her laptop and remains of her snacks the moment her wristwatch announced 4:45 PM had just passed.

Trying to remain calm, Clare quickly put on some fresh clothes and grabbed her phone on the way out. Smoothing her messy hair in the elevator did not help her looks at all, so when Claire stepped out on the ground floor she wasn't really surprised at Zara's eyebrows lifted high up in curiosity. Claire scolded herself in her mind severely for being late. A day when she was late for appointment usually ended badly for her. However, she couldn't wipe away a smug smirk from her face and it accompanied her till the end of the day. Her thoughts kept wandering back to damn Owen Grady and his silly Flintstone costume.

Just as Claire expected in the evening karma kicked her in the butt for being late for her rounds. She was so worn out after one, ill-tempered VIP guest raising hell for being expelled from a ride, she almost forgot asking Zara to look at her calendar.

The two co-workers nearly parted for the night, when Claire remembered it and questioned Zara about next free evening in her graphic.

"Is something wrong?" Zara knitted her eyebrows at the request, but pulled out her paper calendar. Since they started working together, Claire had never asked that kind of question.

"Everything's fine, I just… I just need to know. Personal stuff, you know?" Clare responded and adjusted side of her hair, while looking around.

Even if Zara put two and two together (after all she did see Owen Grady immediately follow her boss leave the party), she did not give it away. "I see you have a relatively light Thursday. Your last meeting ends at 4 PM," Zara proposed, her voice muffled from holding a pen with her lips.

"Thank you," Clare replied and headed for her apartment. She felt silly and almost jumpy on her way.

She pulled her cellphone out the moment she stepped into her quarters and dialed Owen's number.

Owen did not reply right away and when he finally did, she could hear him pant heavily.

"Yes, Dinosaurella?" he chuckled.

"Stop calling me that," Claire scowled, but smiled wryly from ear to ear. "Does Thursday 7 PM work for you? What time do you put the raptors to bed?"

Her heart fluttered at the sound of his sincere and loud laugh. "If you want to drop by and read them a goodnight story, all you have to do is just say so, Claire. Thursday 7 PM works perfectly for me. Cacti Taqueria has great food, if you don't mind your meal spicy."

"I never been there but it's okay. I guess I'll see you then, Mr. Flintstone," she mimicked his playful tone and hung up.

Until Thursday, Claire worked like a little, well-oiled machine. Her focus was in the right places and she thrilled when the Velociraptors got another sponsor to their list. _Owen and his training should be recognized with this success_ , she thought and could barely reign in her anticipation to tell him the news. She got a call with the good news on Wednesday morning and had been bursting with need to tell Owen ever since.

She almost had a chance to tell him on Thursday morning when she met him in the main lobby. Met being a mild term, because she bumped right into him at the park's main lobby. She was in rush for the control room where Mr. Masrani was already waiting for their monthly meeting. On these meetings Claire usually summarized to him every major issue going on at the time, though Claire suspected he scheduled them only to have an excuse to leave the office for park trip.

 _Seriously, what is wrong with me,_ she scolded herself. Frustration grew in her, it was 3rd time this week when she was late to a meeting.

"Claire?" Owen brought her back from momentary reverie and ogled her with pining curiosity.

"No time, 4 minutes late," she breathed and looked around to see where that damn Zara wandered off to. "I'll see you tonight?"

Owen only nodded and told her, "Go."

She caught up with Zara and looked over one more time to Owen. She smiled at him when he winked at her, before going his way.

Claire re-focused on Zara's report and mentally prepared herself for a tough day ahead of her.

The day went considerably well contrary to Claire's morning predictions. She even had the time to make a twenty-minute call to Karen during the lunch and that definitely did not happen often.

After lunch, she got back with Mr. Masrani and they headed for the garages to do some field rounds. They visited a couple of attractions with her car, Velociraptors being one of them. Claire was very satisfied how Mr. Masrani was clearly fascinated with the raptors and their tricks, obeying just the simplest orders a dog could do. While her boss was in some kind of trance, observing Barry work with the dinosaurs, Claire felt she wasn't needed for the next fifteen minutes and sneaked away.

With a beating heart, she headed for Owen's office that was placed just outside the raptors cage. She almost abruptly entered it, before stopping in her tracks and looking through the window into the room. There, she noticed Owen and some female worker talking in quite intimate way. Claire recognized her as Jane from baby-dinosaur attraction. The female trainer gesticulated heavily, while getting closer to Owen, practically hovering over him. Next thing she saw he hugged the trainer tightly, his nose deeply buried in the her neck. He straightened to look back at the woman, said something to her and brushed away the hair from her face just like he did that for Claire the Halloween night. Apparently the gesture encouraged Jane as she reached to kiss him on the corner of his lips.

Claire decided she invaded too much and turned around to walk back where she left Masrani with Zara. Zara asked her what happened, because never in her life she saw a woman sprint that fast in damn five-inch high-heels through gravel, but Claire ignored her. Trying to be as delicate as possible, she reminded her boss they had another meeting at the headquarters and hurried him a little bit too hard for it.

Claire got lost in her thoughts while driving. At the same time Masrani was practically drooling over the raptors, but when it wasn't necessary for her to answer him she remained perfectly quiet. Her inner voice was definitely screaming with panic that moment, feeling totally out of control. The scene she just witnessed was more than ambiguous one and it killed her that Owen Grady manipulated her.

As Zara promised, Claire was duty free precisely at 4:00 PM. Three hours until the date. That was three hours she knew she'd spent on overanalyzing than getting ready In her apartment. If she could, she would just cancel the stupid date but after all Claire was too decent to do that, having no other reason than spying on him. _Maybe it was a misunderstanding_ , she wondered, feeling even more lost in her feelings. To calm her idiotic rumination she did what usually helped her to calm in those kind of situations – she organized the plan for the date to the point of printing it out to put in her purse.

Just before 7 PM she entered the restaurant they were supposed to meet at and she groaned under her nose. Immediately, she noticed she was too much out of place in her elegant dress, standing among a crowd of sunbathers that looked like they just left the Plesiosaur beach.

The moment Owen showed up at the restaurant in very similar clothing to the sunbathers something clicked in her, that made her cranky all evening. _This is pointless, we are nothing alike._

"Hi, don't stand up," he said, approaching her. Her face stayed straight when he bended over and kissed her on the temple. However, her heart betrayed her and fluttered loudly at the touch. "I ordered us some tequila at the bar already."

"No tequila for me, I'm on a diet," Claire lied and felt like she got punched in the gut when his smile dropped.

From this point onward, the date turned straight into a disaster. Claire had not felt the ease of talking to Owen like after the Halloween party. All the time she sabotaged every topic that came up, unconsciously awaiting the moment he would mention the female trainer. He did nothing sort of and she was too proud to bring it up.

When they finished their meals, Claire took out her evening plan and presented it to Owen.

His eyes went wide and he simply admitted, "I was hoping I could take you to the beach, I had no idea you wanted to take the boring tour 70+ year old park guests go for."

"It's not boring. It's actually very well organized. You know what, never mind," Claire drawled and asked the bypassing waiter for the check. "I had a long day and tomorrow I have to leave for the continent at 6 AM."

They split their check and Claire first rose from the table right away. Owen followed her out of the restaurant and said nothing until they reached the pathway leading to the main entrance of the hotel.

"Claire, you've been acting strange this whole evening. Wanna tell me what is this all about?" he asked gently and took her right hand in his.

"I'm sorry, Owen. This," she took her hand back and pointed between them, "is not doing anything for me. Goodnight."

With that, she turned around and walked for her apartment without looking back. She couldn't tell if she was angrier with Owen or with herself. Once more karma kicked her in the butt. Why did she have to be late that day?

-x-

Jane. Jane Lawrence. Hearing the name of baby-dinosaur trainer interrupted Claire's exaggerated remembrance.

"Was Ms. Lawrence also involved in Velociraptor's upbringing process, Mr. Grady?" a U.S. government representative asked.

"Yes, up until certain point she was very much involved," Owen recalled and shifted in his chair. "Ms. Lawrence's opinion on raptors upgrowth and training progress is basically the same I delivered today. We were always unanimous in that matter."

"Thank you, Mr. Grady, we will contact Ms. Lawrence," the older woman answered. "This will be enough for today. We're going to have a 30 minute break now and after that we'll call Mr. Barree Allard for his testimony."

"Merde," Claire heard Barry mutter under his nose. "On va en finir avec ça."

"I feel you, Barry," Claire murmured.

Almost everybody left for some refreshments and soon she and Owen were the only ones left in the conference room.

"You look too good for your own good in this suit," she said in serious tone. She got up from her chair in the auditorium, but remained in her place stretching out a little after an hour of motionless sitting.

"You're not the only one that can pull off the business look," Owen spoke, as he approached her and put his hands in his pockets. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with right hand. "I'm dead tired."

"You can leave, after all you're done for today," Claire suggested and smoothed her cobalt-colored dress.

Owen shook his head. "I want to be some kind of support for Barry," he murmured and grabbed Claire by her sides. "Thank you for being here for me."

Claire looked him in the eye and felt some of her tension go away at the slightest Owen's touch.

"I've been meaning to ask you," he breathed in her face and Claire could swear all the air in the room was sucked out and filled in with the scent of his cologne only. "We haven't been alone for weeks now and there was no good time either…"

"I know… Karen is doing everything she can to distract herself and the boys from the divorce, so all her focus is suddenly on me and the investigation," she interrupted him. "I swear if I see _Gone with the Wind_ one more time I might staple her to my roof."

Owen chuckled, but was not fooled by Claire's attempt to change the subject. "Anyways, I was wondering if there's a chance you have changed your mind about that second date with me," he carried on.

After a couple of over dragged with silence seconds Claire burst out, "Who is Jane Lawrence?"

"What?" he asked in high tone, tilting his head back.

"Yeah, drop the sudden impairment." Claire narrowed her eyes.

"She worked in the nursery long before I came to work with the raptors," Owen mused. "She was big time help in the first months after they hatched. Why do you ask?" He noticed that Claire was clearly not satisfied with this answer as she raised her eyebrows suggestively.

The red-head sighed heavily and decided to break the ill cycle. "The one that was very touchy-feely with you the afternoon before our date."

Owen winced. "You saw that."

Claire wanted to riposte something about romantic kind of interactions at workplace, but bit her tongue.

"Listen I might or not might have told her I was gay so… she decided she could make me her gay BFF…" he rambled on and knitted his eyebrows at one point. "That fired backwards really, because she bugged me even more and… that day, our date day, one baby in the new Ceratopsians litter died and she was devastated… it hit me really hard too…"

Claire caught herself nodding understandingly at his chaotic attempt of explanation when she stopped him. "Wait, what? Why on earth would you tell her you're gay?" she enquired. Just when she was sure the relationship between them couldn't get any weirder.

"She became very imposing after the Halloween party," Owen sighed. "I really did not want to scare you off, you just agreed to go out with me after months of avoiding me… and I kind of improvised."

"Badly. You're an idiot," she exclaimed, which he acknowledged by spreading his arms in surrender gesture.

"I might be an idiot, but you're the one who ridiculously overreacted instead of spilling the beans at the date if that bugged you."

"She kissed you almost on the mouth!" Claire hissed. "I assumed you would be calling right away to cancel the date."

"In my defense I pushed her away, because that was enough. Still, instead of talking about what's on your mind, you decided to sabotage the date with the stupidest reason ever."

"It wasn't that stupid. Also I thought you would sense what I was angry about," she blurted.

Owen clenched his jaw and cocked his head to the side, shaking with laugher. "Woman, are you for real… you're forgetting I don't read people's minds and analyze them like you like to. I really believed you did not feel the way I did so I backed off."

Claire didn't have any response to come up with anymore. She looked at him with eyes wide-open, their surroundings becoming oblivious to her at that moment. Owen grunted angrily and pinned her against glass railing that separated the conference room. He covered her mouth with his in a frustrated, hungry manner. She yelped softly like the last time they kissed, because that damn man just loved to be overdramatic. However, this kiss was not filled with gratitude like the first one they shared after Claire saved Owen's life. She responded immediately and deepened the kiss, pressing her left palm in his hair and pushing him even more into her. His strong arms kept caressing her sides and a low moan escaped Claire's lips when his tongue entered her mouth. He still tasted like the vanilla coffee they shared on their last break. She could still feel his warm breath on her chin when they parted a little, his eyes seeking hers. Owen clearly wanted her to realize he would hold her to the promise this kiss meant.

"Ms. Dearing, Mr. Grady. If you don't mind," the chairman of hearing committee rebuked as he walked into the conference room. Behind him, in the doorway, stood Lowery with his mouth hanging open. Claire saw him breath out "nice" as he sat down a few seats to their left.

 _I really do mind,_ Claire thought and sat down next to Owen in the auditorium chairs. She placed her palm on his lap, fingers intertwined with his and kept it there until Barry's interrogation finished.

Her eyes kept wandering to the man beside her. After a couple of minutes, her gaze was met with Owen's mischievous one.

Claire Dearing could not think of any more excuses to run.


	2. Chapter 2

The third time Owen knocked loudly on Claire's door he regretted leaving the cellphone in his car. He stood in the middle of long hallway wearing a dark-blue suit. If he could he would trade it for anything less stiff, but for their second date they were going to a restaurant of Claire's choice. Owen could not tell if she had made a reservation at one of those fancy, expensive restaurants to mess with him or just to have an excuse to make him wear more suits. Truth be told he already knew she had a thing for his short-sleeve t-shirts, so the suits fixation was still beyond his understanding for the time being.

He knocked for the fourth time at the door, wondering what the hell was happening there. Clear sound of utter chaos mixed with glass breaking and Gray's edgy voice for sure could be heard from the other side of the country.

"Can I help you?" an annoyed voice came from behind Owen's back. He turned his head to see Claire's neighbor standing in his doorway. A 30-something guy, straight out of golf magazine cover, was looking at him suspiciously. Just that made Owen instantly irritated with this new 'acquaintance'.

"Not really, unless you can lend me a phone. I left mine in the car, I hurried to pick up my… Claire," Owen reflectively conceded and awkwardly scratched behind his ear. "I wasn't expecting the apparent hard metal festival."

"Definitely enough clamor with you trying to overthrow the doors," the dandified guy remarked and stepped inside his apartment to grab a palm-sized phone Owen did not know that existed (still being a proud Nokia 6210 owner, despite Zach pigeonholing him as a hipster). Owen was about to spell him Claire's number, but the guy did not ask for it and dialed out, and after a couple of seconds he could hear Claire answer. "Hi, there's a guy pounding at your door five minutes now."

Before Owen had the time to thank the weird guy, Claire opened the door in a rush. He stammered at her sight, she was clearly out of breath but looked stunning. Her hair pinned in bob, dark satin and backless dress showing off her shoulders. Something stung Owen in his chest when he noticed she was barefoot and even smaller than he was used to.

"I'm so sorry Owen!" she greeted him while putting a long earring in her other ear. "Gray adopted a stray kitten yesterday morning and apart from peeing on every surface of my apartment it just knocked the honey jar. Just don't ask further questions, my apartment is contaminated forever. I'll have to move to Antarctica to forget the smell of cat pee mixed with honey and Lysol," Claire ranted and just after a minute noticed her neighbor standing in his doors behind Owen. "Jay, hi! Thank you for the heads up!"

"No problem, Fireball," Jay grinned and his voice suddenly softened. "You alright there with the Addams?"

"I've handled worse," Claire grinned back, while Owen just stood there looking back and forth between them, his right eyebrow almost reaching the middle of his temple.

Owen cleared his throat and looked at his watch. "Shall we?"

"Yes, of course!" she exclaimed and duck behind her doors to grab a pair of red bottoms, a coat and a small purse. "Ready. If you excuse us, Jay, we can't be late. A table at Westwood & Blythe does not wait."

"Certainly not. Heads up, Fireball, don't order the Salmon en croûte. They got a new guy on the fish dishes and my latest experience was rather dreadful," he added, wincing and stepped back into his anteroom.

It took a lot of Owen's self-control to hold back the biggest eye-roll of his lifetime.

"Fully noted, thank you," Claire kindly replied and waved Jay goodbye.

As they quietly walked to Owen's car, he savored the view of Claire's back while letting her through first. When they reached it, Owen opened the passenger doors for her and Claire grimaced.

"I hope I don't smell like cat pee," she groaned as she sat down.

Owen bent down over to her and whispered "You smell really nice, Dinosaurella," before kissing the top of her head. She grunted at the nickname but smirked at him, as he walked around the car for the driver's seat.

"What's on your mind?" Claire asked feeling something clearly bothered him. Eyes sunk deep on the road, fingers dug into driving wheel, at first Owen did not hear her question. She placed a palm on his tense thigh. "Owen?"

He really had the urge to ask her about Jay, but at the same time did not want just their second date ruined by unjustified jealousy again, so he decided to ask her later and lied, "I'm fine." She clearly did not look convinced about that so he changed the subject. "I agreed on the reptile job at the College Teaching Zoo," Owen informed her.

"That's amazing!" Claire rejoiced. "When do you start?"

"Well… considering the previous director retires after the winter semester, the beginning of summer semester is most plausible date."

"Professor Grady," she mused and made a lopsided smile. "It has a ring to it."

"Not technically a professor, but yeah, behave yourself or you'll get an F from me," Owen joked and bent in seat a little to escape a jab to his ribs.

After they parked, Claire got out of the car first and enjoyed a rather warm night, while she waited for Owen.

"I'll have you know, never in my life I got an F," she stated as he finally approached her, putting his wallet into inner pocket of the jacket.

Owen grinned at her and offered her an arm before they walked into the local. "Of course you didn't," he teased, using an unbelieving tone.

"It's true!" Claire retorted. "I didn't have the time for re-taking tests. Our mother died young, I had to get a job to support Karen."

Owen's face softened. "I'm sorry. I just had this feeling you were one unruly ginger in your uni years."

"Who says I wasn't?" she teased and winked at him, before turning to the waiter that welcomed them.

While the waiter led them between the tables, Owen looked around the fancy restaurant. He wasn't used to those kind of places and to him it was the kind of restaurant you choose for a business meeting of high importance or to propose in. A slight sweat run across his temple as they sat down and were handled menu cards. It wasn't that he was tightwad, on the contrary. Owen was very glad at Claire's obvious pleasure when he agreed to this restaurant for their second date. However, the image of Jay-the-cardigan popped up in his head. That guy would definitely know what these hieroglyphs meant in short spell book the waiter called a menu.

Claire must had noticed his stupefied expression, because she spread her menu on the table and started explaining, "Pastrami de canard is basically a cold served duck, it's really good. They serve it with foie gras, strawberries and coffee dressing, you'll find it surprisingly fitting," she murmured in his ear and was apparently very oblivious to what her French and its translations did to him as she carried on. "Artichoke risotto is awesome if you like mussel and truffles, I know you're not a seafood fan so this might be risky…"

"I'll entrust your taste," Owen decided and closed his menu after she read him all the options.

She beamed with satisfaction at his words. "You won't regret this."

"So, a cat huh?" Owen initiated after they ordered. "How come Karen agreed to that?"

Claire sighed and handed over their menus to the waiter. "Don't get me started. Scott and Karen agreed they wouldn't kickoff with the favorite-parent race, but as much as Karen tries she's abreacting too. She's seriously thinking about moving here, hence the ease with cat decision. I suppose Jay did not help the case at all."

"How so?" Owen asked, trying to keep an indifferent voice.

"Jay is now Zach's and Gray's hero because he lent them some stuff of his late cat. Of course he's like a cool uncle, incidentally I could never be, so he spent whole the Friday evening playing with them," she sighed and tilted her head. "I miss those days when it was only me talking to my TV," she pondered to herself.

"I guess I'm not cool enough without my raptors anymore," Owen remarked before he realized he just exposed himself.

Claire frowned. "What are you talking about, they adore you. Zach cannot stop bugging me to ask you about motorcycle lessons."

"No problem, Fireball," he agreed meekly.

"Ok, I sense this is about something else," she noted. Claire put her wine glass down and softly wiped her upper lip with napkin. "Spit it out," she requested when he was about to say 'it's nothing'. "We both agreed on the 'Spill the beans' regulation, which by the way you came up with."

Owen sighed. "It's your neighbor, I was a little-tiny-bit annoyed with his attitude towards you."

"Enlighten me, what was his attitude with me?" Claire asked, truly lost.

"Oh come on, you seriously don't see what he's doing? The way he looks at you? It's exactly the same look I give you," he fumed, though not precisely surprised at her clueless face. "You didn't know? I'm amazed he hasn't asked you out earlier."

Claire shook her head. "No, you can't be right. We're neighbors 3 years now, I talked to him quite often when I was back from the island. He never asked me out once."

"I'm just telling you what I saw. He wasn't really hiding it, considering I was standing next to you, clearly taking you out on a date," Owen insisted and rose his eyebrows.

Their banter was interrupted by their food arriving. Owen long forgot Jay the moment he took a bite of his meal. Claire did not comment on his face, but was bursting with 'I told you so' look.

"You're a genius," he admitted between the bites.

"Actually the person who invented this dish is, but I shan't disagree with your compliment," she batted her eyelashes at him and began to eat.

They ate for a while in comfortable silence. After a couple of minutes, Claire made a small sound.

"Mm, I just remembered!" she gasped. "Vivian called me in the morning, apparently the army is analyzing the island for potential recapturing. Blue was spotted on the satellite, she's in good shape."

Owen stopped eating, his face dropping for a second. His thoughts often returned to his remaining raptor protégé. Blue was the last evidence of his 2-year involvement at the Jurassic World.

Claire reached for his left hand, caressing the back of his palm. "Hey, don't worry, they won't kill the animals left, they're going to use soporifics. Some heavy ones but still."

"I don't know how to feel about this, we're not gonna get back there soon. There's little chance the park will re-open," Owen said slowly.

"The dinosaurs will get good care and they'll be safe from each other," Claire reassured him and looked around. "You look like you could use some tequila right now. Though I'm pretty sure we won't order here anything else than Pinot noir vintage 1995."

"Now we're talking." The sly smile returned to Owen's face. "What are you suggesting?"

"Show me how to drink tequila," she dared him.

"Woman, you're playing with fire here," Owen breathed quietly, leaning over the table. "But what kind of gentleman would I be if I refused when my lady insists."

Claire grinned at him and asked a walking by waiter for their check.

Soon they were driving for Owen's drink bar of choice and Claire was practically skipping in her seat.

"Are you that anxious, not knowing where we are going?" he chuckled. "Relax."

"I am relaxed, and I completely rely on you. Don't care where we are going," she backfired and put on her cool expression.

When they arrived, Owen took off his tie and threw it to the backseat.

Claire raised her eyebrows at him, but at the same time she noticed she and Owen were in fact dressed much more officially than the people entering the 'Golden Water Pub' they found themselves in front of.

"Maybe this was not such a good idea, we should have some casual clothing," she hesitated.

"Don't chicken out now, no one cares at 'Golden' really," Owen encouraged and bent over to her. His eyes found hers, trying to understand what was going on inside that redhead of hers. He could almost see her head steaming from overthinking. Breath stuck somewhere in his throat when she bit her lip and got closer to him.

"I don't chicken out," she whispered and pulled away from him to dissolve her hair from tight hairdo. Newly released red-locks were falling over her shoulders, and Owen noticed Claire hadn't straightened her hair that night. He found it even more appealing than her usual hairstyle.

He swallowed hard before following Claire into the pub, wondering how he would survive the night with Claire Dearing at his side.

"Should we find a table?" she wondered while looking around.

Owen smirked and shook his head. "Definitely not," he objected and pointed her to the high chairs by the bar. "Let's do this right."

He snorted loudly when they sat down and first thing Claire said to the bartender was, "Hi, Can we have lots of tequila? My boyfriend here surely needs more than one glass."

"Wow, you really don't even know how to order tequila," Owen laughed sincerely and added to the confused bartender, "Two shots of gold tequila with salt and lime, please. We'll start with the classic way."

"No, I might have drunk it once in my life," Claire admitted, then rested her chin in her palm. "I'm more used to cheap merlots I was buying with my friends after the lectures… or weird drinks I had over business meetings." She looked at him quizzically when they were served their shots.

"Look at me," he instructed, forming a small mound of salt on the membrane between his thumb and index finger. "Lick, drink, suck."

"Lick, drink, suck," she repeated and followed Owen's actions. She coughed a bit after drinking the shot. "This is strong."

"Shut up and suck," Owen hastened and handed her the lime.

At first, Claire cringed, but after few seconds she looked at him with satisfaction. "This is awesome."

"I know. Tell me about your unruly years at uni," Owen inquired after he ordered another two rounds for them.

The red-head frowned, trying to recall anything worth telling him about. "Oh my gosh, I don't know… like I already told you, I usually did not fool around, did not really have time to. However…" she stopped mid-sentence.

"However what?" Owen questioned.

"I got kicked out of class once and the dean suspended me for a week in my second year," she laughed and put some hair behind her ear. "I smeared one guy's back with toothpaste in the middle of philosophy lecture."

Owen applauded her quietly and asked, "What has he done to deserve this fate?"

"I was going out with him for a couple of months, nothing serious really. Anyways, one day he decided to publicly break up with me at this big student party everyone had to be at. And by publicly, I mean throw his tongue down Valerie Leighton's throat, my number one nemesis."

"Classy."

Claire shrugged. "Yeah, but I survived. Nothing a couple of parties and Chardonnay would not fix."

Owen laughed out loud as he took of his jacket, and rolled up his sleeves. "Were those bingo-club parties? Chardonnay, Jesus Christ…"

"Knock it off." Claire huffed. "Why do I even bother with you, I'm sure you were this number one popular jock who drunk cheap beer and wouldn't look nerdy and freckled red-head's way."

"I'm sorry," he apologized, showing a teeth-wide smile. "I was kind of a jock, but I was very friendly. My best friend in high-school was head of RPG games group."

Claire rose an eyebrow. "Do you even know what RPG stands for?" she asked with skepticism.

"Reading Pack Game?" Owen guessed and Claire laughed, covering her eyes with her hand.

"Close, but not really. At all."

"About that comment on red-heads," he remarked and handed her a drink. "You couldn't be more wrong."

"What do you mean?" Claire questioned, obviously confused.

"I always had an eye for red-heads," Owen teased and got closer to her.

Claire nodded her head. She held her breath for a moment like she needed to refocus. "Tell me about your years at the navy. I remember from your resume you joined the army right away after your biology degree?"

"You remember correctly. Nothing was holding me in the states anymore, so I chose a foreign station. My father died after remarrying and I really do not get along with my stepmother."

"How was the navy?"

"Tough. But really great. Helped me overcome my anger towards my biological mother," he admitted and hesitated as he was about to say more. Owen cocked his head to the side and looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, I am killing the mood. Let's have a raincheck on this conversation, once we really have nothing more depressive to talk about."

"You're not killing the mood," Claire heartily denied.

A vivid music came on in the pub and Owen put his glass down, smiling playfully at her.

"No. Don't even think about it," she exclaimed, but in a second was pulled into the dance floor. Owen's left hand landed on her side, while his right one found her palm.

"You owe me a beach walk, which I'm trading in for a dance right now," he announced matter-of-factly, leading her slowly through the dancing crowd.

"Who decided it works like that?" Claire wondered. However, she let herself dive into the '70's style beat as Owen swirled her around. "You're making me dizzy," she laughed.

"Now would Jay make you dizzy?" Owen half-seriously teased in her ear.

"I'm sure he knows his dance techniques, I danced with him at last year's Christmas party," Claire teased back, pretending to think through her options.

Owen did not reply at her little provocation. The only thing he was focused on in that moment was the smell of Claire's perfume, the softness of her upper-arm skin under his fingers and her smooth, perfectly pink lips parted slightly. He was happy to notice she was affected at their closeness like he was. Somewhere along the song Owen buried his nose in red locks on the side of her head, breathing in her scent like it was new-found narcotic.

When the song finished and changed to some fresh techno hit both Claire and Owen felt snatched away from their little world and hesitantly headed back for their seats.

"Final round?" Owen proposed.

"Final round. I don't remember last time I got this drunk," Claire admitted, nodding.

"Glad I could help," he chuckled and handed her freshly filled glass.

They drank down at once and Owen looked around for the lemon only to find it in Claire's mouth.

She grinned at him, raising her eyebrows, clearly not thinking of giving up the fresh piece of lemon easily. Without further thought, Owen leaned to her, his mouth finding the fruit between her teeth. Claire smiled widely and opened her mouth under his to give him better access to suck on the fruit. After a moment, they parted a little and Claire took her chance to take out the lemon from his teeth and replace it with her tongue. Owen growled lowly, still tasting the mix of salt, lemon and tequila off her. His hand wandered to the small of her back and pulled her closer to him, while Claire's left hand stroked hair at the nape of Owen's neck, sending electricity down his spine.

Claire moaned quietly when they finally broke the kiss and came back for air, neither wanting the moment ever to end. She closed her eyes lazily and Owen admired her blushed face. Something clearly bothered her, as her expression changed from delighted to crestfallen one.

"What's wrong?" he asked and placed her right hand between his palms.

"I kinda don't want to go back to my apartment," she groaned, smiling crookedly. "Don't get me wrong, I love Karen and the boys but I'm used to having more space and um… peace?"

"I would gladly help you out here," Owen muttered and ran his fingers across her upper arm, sensing her shivers under his hand. "But until the hearings don't end Barry is crashing at my place," he continued, quickly sucking his breath in at the sight of Claire biting on her lip. That gesture was the most interesting thing he noticed during their first meeting and, subconsciously or not, increased his pressure every single time she would do it. Maybe it was some kind of witchcraft, because many women he could be interested in did that, yet nothing influenced him more that this particular redhead and her specific shade of pink lips.

Claire shook her head, but smile widely at him. They both knew they were talking about something else really. "It's okay, soon we'll be all through with this," she reassured him and squeezed his hand back.

Soon both Owen and Claire decided they had enough tequila, so Owen asked for the bill and they left the locale. He was about to catch a cab when Claire stopped him, lowering his arm with her hand.

"Wait. I live nearby, don't I? Care for a walk?" she suggested and stuck out her hand towards him.

Owen gladly laced his fingers with hers as Claire led them through the illuminated park. He knew this was the long way, but did not care. Walking down the pebble aisles, while Claire rested her head on his shoulder, made him feel most relaxed since the island events. He allowed himself to forget the panic, the chaos and the fear for a moment. To that day he would get nightmares about Claire outrunning the T-Rex in her ridiculous shoes, but feeling her warm body right next to his made it easier to convince himself she was safe and could take care of herself. She could take care of herself maybe more than he would take care of himself, and even more than he would like to admit. After their first failed date, Owen often wondered if such independent woman really needed him, why would she even let him take care of her when she did not have to. Therefore, potential competition in form of Jay bothered him harder than he would care in the past. Mostly because Owen recognized his and Claire's differences, and at point her and Jay's similarities emphasized them further.

The pair walked in comfortable silence until they reached Claire's building. Owen followed her to the top of the stairs but stopped at the last step.

"You want to pop by for a coffee or something?" she asked, her cheeks flushed out.

"Nah, everybody is probably long asleep," Owen remarked and checked his watch, noticing almost 2 AM on it.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Claire agreed.

They both got quiet again, and while Claire looked like she desperately wanted to come up with anything more to say, Owen leaned over her. He felt growing pride in his chest seeing an immediate effect he brought out in her. The pale sensation of her rapid breathing against his cheek, and her head turned up high to face him, made him silently curse both guests in her apartment and the couch crasher at his.

However, the moment his lips reached her soft ones, he felt a slight hit on his left arm and Claire bounced back a bit.

"Pardon, can I pass?" a voice asked on the other side of the entrance door Owen and Claire were standing next to.

They both moved to Owen's right and the doors opened fully, showing Jay's silhouette, leading a small mongrel on a leash. Without further ado he passed them on the stairs and disappeared with the dog behind the nearest tree.

"Seriously?" Owen exclaimed. "What the hell- Why is he even-?" he blurted out, feeling totally dumbfounded.

"Ah, Pepper…" Claire sighed and massaged her temple. "The dog is pretty old, it needs a walk in the middle of the night… Jay is being a total hero, he would do anything for this dog."

"Real mother Teresa," Owen murmured sharply.

Claire frowned and replied angrily, "Oh for heaven's sake, Owen, you're being a baby. The man sacrifices his beauty sleep ¸ as you'd call it, for the poor animal. Not so long ago you were the one playing the wise guy on animal's feelings." She folded her arms and leered at him.

Owen sighed, scratching his head. "I'm sorry, it's not about the dog-"

"No, It's your ridiculous alpha thing," she interrupted him in annoyed tone but next thing he knew, her mouth was back on his, moving firmly against his skin.

His arms roamed around her and found her back, pressing her hardly between his body and the brick corner next to the entrance. Claire moaned loudly at the harsh feeling of a mailbox between her shoulder blades, but did not move. She was pinned to the wall with Owen's strong arms preventing her from falling over. A mix of forest berry pie they had for dessert and tequila with lemon tastes entered his mouth along with her tongue making Owen dizzy. It felt like her small, fragile figure took full control over his body. All of Owen's frustration that took a high peak at his latest encounter with Jay. He did not know who, him or Claire, was trying harder to make a point with that kiss.

A low groan, followed by panting, escaped his lips just when the damn vixen that was underneath him ran a hand through the hair at the nape of his neck, her other one supporting herself against his chest. He did not wait long with responding tit for tat and was more than happy to hear her sigh at the feeling of his right hand sliding down from her waist to the flexion of skin between the back of her thigh and buttock under her skirt, rising her left leg a bit to his side.

Part of him didn't want the kiss to end knowing Jay would be coming back anytime and it fomented the 'alpha thing' in him, how Claire called it. However, the greater part of him focused on the few alone moments they were lately able to enjoy. The inability to just grab her and take her upstairs to the her apartment bedroom's, which she currently shared with her sister, was probably worse torture than fighting off a pterodactyl herd.

He was sucking on her bottom lip when he heard a queasy grunt behind him, which probably meant the infamous neighbor coming back from his night walk. Neither of them reacted since they weren't blocking the door anymore, but Claire apparently couldn't keep her chuckle in more than the moment the front door closed behind Jay.

Owen eyed her, wondering how her flushed, deep-pink face still looked perfect and sensuous after their, straight out of some teenager textbook, make-out session.

"I should go," she finally decided, not really making a convincing attempt of untangling herself from Owen's arms. "Call me in the morning when you wake up, we could all have late Sunday lunch. What do you think?"

"Gladly," Owen agreed. "Don't confuse the doors on the way to your apartment," he added in teasing voice.

"Idiot," she breathed under her nose and rolled her eyes. "I'm not that drunk, and the only night attractions in store for me are Karen's snoring and floating Lysol fragrance. Goodnight," Clare whispered, before slowly kissing Owen for last time and disappearing into the building.

Owen headed back to the street to catch a taxi. When he finally succeeded and was on his way home, he rested his temple on cold window glass. What did Claire Dearing do to him?

-x-

Morning came too early for Owen, who was woken by Barry's rapping coming from the kitchen. When he noticed it was 11 AM, he dragged himself out of the bed remembering his promise about lunch with Claire's family.

"Here you are, lover boy," Barry cheerfully called and patted on kitchen island's top. "Have some crêpes and tell me how the date went."

Owen obeyed and sat down by the table. He rubbed his eyes and stared into space behind his friend, trying to find the right words to sum up his evening with Claire. It was barmy and marvelous at once. He feared they wouldn't have anything common to talk about, but they really clicked either in serious conversation or teasing and simple small talk.

"That bad?" Barry made a guess, noticing Owen's reverie.

"No, it was…" Owen paused, searching for the right words. "Refreshing, after all we've been through lately, and after our first confusing date." He mused whether to confide in him about his competition, but not wanting to appear paranoid or diffident, he concealed his doubts.

After breakfast, he called Claire's cellphone, but Karen answered it, telling him her sister was in the shower. Pushing out the dirty thought that immediately popped up in his head, Owen focused on setting place and time with Karen for the lunch. The weather forecast mentioned relatively warm temperatures so he went to change into some casual, Sunday clothes. Owen consciously chose a similar beige shirt to the one he had on island and a black jacket.

Before heading for the 'Peaches & Cream' Café, Owen caught a taxi for the place he left his car at the previous night. He would love a ride on his Triumph; he missed it greatly. Claire managed to save it from the island for him, but Barry was borrowing it for the time being so he was stuck with his jeep.

When he finally reached the café, he only spotted Claire at a table. She was sitting in the open sun, wearing a flowery dress, light overcoat and bug-sunglasses.

"Won't you get sunburn?" Owen called as he approached her and did not give her time to reply, bending down over her and pecking her on the lips.

Claire crossed her arms. "Ha-ha. Is this the only shirt you have in your closet?"

"Exactly, I bought two dozens of these," he played along and sad down next to her. "Where's the Mitchell gang?"

"Probably killing each other over the last cinnamon roll," Claire sighed and nodded towards the café. "I ordered flat-white and ham croissant for you, I hope you don't mind, the queue is crazy."

"You're the cutest weirdo, remembering my faves," he admitted and reached for her hand as she blushed slightly. "How's the feline Pandora box? Content with all the toys from Jay?"

Claire's eyes opened wide at the question and she stuttered out, "She's fine, actually we had a quiet night." She looked around searching for her sister and nephews. Not noticing them she blurted out, "I have a confession to make."

"Okay, what is it?" Owen answered cautiously. He did not know what she was saying but he felt like he did not like it already.

Claire sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "You weren't exactly wrong about Jay."

Owen frowned. "I was right?" he asked and cocked his head, truly surprised his radar was not off when it came to Ms. Dearing. "How'd that happen?"

"I- um, came across Jay in the morning and he might have asked me out."

Awkward silence fell between them. Finally, but still keeping a rather dumbfounded face Owen managed to say, "I must say, I admire his spirit after last night."

"Are you angry?" she asked and smiled wryly.

Raising an eyebrow Owen crossed his arms. "All depends on what was your answer."

"Of course I said no!" Claire spat out in offended voice. "It's not like I go around hugging and almost kissing people!"

Owen sat back in his chair and narrowed his eyes, "Are you pointing fingers now?"

In that moment they both realized Gray was standing close and listening, his nipping at cinnamon roll interrupted by suspended breath and frightened expression.

"Hi buddy," Owen recovered and welcomed the boy cheerfully.

"Are you going to break up just like parents did?" Gray asked in teary voice. He approached Owen's side and hugged him tightly.

Owen put his left arm around the boy, understanding his fear. Lately the only stability in their lives was sticking together, and Owen really grew fond of the boys and their mother too.

"We're just loudly conversing, Gray," Claire reassured him and patted the seat next to her, inviting him to sit.

"Did you tell Uncle Owen about what you did?!" the boy exclaimed, his mood changing right away.

"What did you do?" Owen inquired, not able to hide his amusement. His heart filled with warmth at a bit premature family designation, but it seemed nobody wanted to correct Gray.

Claire smoothed side of Gray's hair and replied slowly, "I might overreacted a bit about Jay… truth be told I never seen him this much aggressive over something, we always got along pretty well…"

"She kicked him in the tibia," Karen's voice came from behind Owen. As Owen stood up to greet her and Zach, she continued, "If only she kicked him in the nuts."

"Karen!" Claire exclaimed and closed her eyes with embarrassment.

"Dude, it was wicked," Zach commented.

Owen's mouth hanged open for a moment. "Was he that aggressive? Maybe you should have called the cops?"

"No, no." the younger redhead shook her head. "He didn't touch me or got too close, or anything. He, er… started insulting you."

"His lightest insult was that you're savage," Karen said calmly, but she was almost shaking with laugher. "Something about damaged mailbox?" she asked mysteriously, confusing her sons.

"Can we change the subject?" Claire insisted, making a do-you-believe-me-now face at Owen.

"Yes!" Karen clapped her hands and put down her coffee. "I'm sure Claire told you we want to move out of Wisconsin."

Owen nodded at her words.

"I found a perfect apartment and my company allowed me to switch locations, so I guess this is official?" Karen announced.

"What did Scott say about this?" Owen asked curiously.

Karen waved her had, "Please, he spends most of his time in airplanes because of work anyways. He'll drop in when he's around or I'll book a flight for boys."

"We don't mind," Zach admitted, "and I love the change for the big city."

"More girls." Gray grinned and Zach rubbed not-too-gently the top of his head.

"Anyways, I can rent the place next week already so I won't be hovering over you anymore, sis. We're taking our Lucifer kitten with us, so that should be a relief, huh?" Karen teased and rubbed Claire's arm.

"You can keep that name, it suits the cat," Claire agreed in unenthusiastic voice. "But don't be silly and do not rush the moving, you can stay as long you want."

"We'd love to, but it's not a four person flat, you know it," Karen admitted. "Also I kept your TV a prisoner too long."

"Just let me watch the news sometimes over Romance channel and I'll be fine," she insisted.

"Really, Claire, we'll be in the same neighborhood. I'm sure we are still gonna bother you and Owen." Karen winked and turned to the man. "I was hoping you'd give us a hand when our stuff will arrive from Wisconsin."

Owen felt like Karen's eyes drilled a hole in his head and replied right away, "Of course." He noticed Claire turning face away from her sister, not to show her grinning like an idiot.

"You're so screwed," Claire later remarked, strolling long behind her family. They were having a walk down the alley to an ice cream parlor and a comic book store boys begged to visit.

"You mean your sister's moving?" Owen asked and squeezed her hand plaited with his. "You won't get out of it too and I'm afraid your golden neighbor won't be eager to help."

"More of your savagery for me and for Karen's stacks of boxes then," she murmured, resting her jaw on his shoulder.

"You have no idea," he replied and put on his sunglasses.

After all Owen Grady have been through in his life, he definitely did not complain about having family of some sorts and just being with them.

-x-

"This is the last one," Claire announced when Owen reentered her apartment for about twentieth time next Saturday.

It was the moving day for Karen and the boys. Claire couldn't help but constantly wonder out loud how in such short time they managed to collect all that stuff in there.

"Be careful, this one is full of Murano glass," she cringed and handed him the heavy box. "Not that I care for my sister's hideous set of glasses, more like your head in place if anything happens to these."

"Roger that," Owen acknowledged and disappeared again down the hall. When he came back, Claire was bustling around and did not notice right away his shirt and jeans dipping in blood from his palm. "Uhm, babe? Can you give me a hand?"

"What happened?" Claire shouted, running up to him across the room. "Was it the revenge of cursed Murano?" she asked and examined his hand.

"No, no. Unlike my hand, my head shall remain intact. There was a Japanese knife in the box and it shred through the thin cardboard."

"Should we go to the hospital?"

Owen shook his head. "No, it's superficial and I smudged it while loading the box to your sisters' car. She wanted to go to the hospital too, but I told her to go with boys, it just looks scary. Do you have hydrogen peroxide and some Band-Aids?"

"Of course," she said and led him into the bathroom.

Owen sat down on the edge of the tub, while Claire rummaged through her small medical cabinet.

"It'll decolorize your clothes," she commented when she found the needed supplies at last.

"This is my last pair of jeans, if I lose this one too I'll have to go shopping either in board shorts or suit pants," he groaned.

Claire flinched at the memory of board shorts. "Over my dead body."

Owen snorted. "Can you save it?"

"Lose it right now. Cold water first, then we'll see," she commanded and helped him take off the shirt over his head.

Trying to distract himself from her warm hands on his naked chest and then on his leather belt, Owen turned his head away from Claire until she threw the jeans and the t-shirt into bathtub filled with cold water.

"Your hand, please," the redhead demanded. She spread a towel on his thighs, sat down on carpet between Owen's legs and started to clean his wound carefully. "It's not that bad," she breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his face. He was watching her carefully, feeling his jaw clench at her every touch.

Owen hissed when her pale, delicate hands found the deepest point of cut.

"I'm sorry, it'll be better in a second," Claire promised him and totally surprised him by placing a gentle kiss on his wrist. "Better?" she asked in quiet voice, smirking at him.

Owen pretended hesitation on his answer. "I don't know, this whole situation stressed me out. I have a major headache going on."

Claire huffed, but rose just a bit to reach his lips.

The kiss was something different from their previous ones, mostly because it was the first one initiated by Claire. Owen couldn't complain at her right hand stroking his calf in a daring move. His palms found her bottom and pulled her up to his level, her legs entangling between his legs and the bath towel.

Shortly Owen broke the kiss to find her collarbone with his mouth, tasting skin with a couple of small moles above it. He really felt like he should take her sunbathing in summer, feeling great need to see freckles on that fragile surface.

"Jeans," Claire moaned while she leaned harder into him, digging her nails in his neck.

"That's not the word I would expect to hear while kissing you, but why am I not surprised?" he breathed, letting her loose with his palms still on her buttocks.

"No board shorts," she stated firmly. "To be continued. Now scatter, I have some pants-saving to do. I'll lend you Zach's t-sweatpants in a moment."

Owen sighed and got up from the bathtub edge. He tied the towel around his waist and left Claire reading through every detergent in her bathroom.

Though just a moment earlier arousal was filling his body, tiredness overcame him while he waited on the couch in the living room. Nearly dozing off, Owen jumped slightly when he heard a knock on the apartment's door.

Thinking it was probably Karen who forgot her copper Buddha statue or something like this, Owen went straight for the door and opened it without looking through the peephole. This lead to Owen greeting Jay in nothing but towel over his briefs. Jay's face flushed shortly at his confident attitude.

"Dude," Owen sighed resignedly and crossed his arms. "You've got 5 seconds before I kick your ass across the hall."

"Yeah, I suppose your anger is justified," Jay admitted, scratching behind his ear. "Listen, I'm sorry about what I said to Claire last Sunday."

"You don't have to apologize for insulting me, or whatever if you mean that, you could call me a gorilla for what I care, just don't fling yourself at anyone who clearly isn't interested."

"It's just that I know her three years now and… I've been meaning to ask her out since she moved back here permanently and I didn't know she was seeing somebody. All the time I know her I never heard her talk about boyfriend or anything…"

"Is there a point to this self-monologue?" Owen inquired impatiently.

"…and when I saw her on the news, the tragic events, her heroic behavior, it really changed my view on her, she seemed different…" Jay went on like he hadn't heard the question.

Owen tilted his head incredulously and almost squealed, "Seriously? She hasn't changed that much since the island, and I would know, I chased the woman for about a year. When she finally agreed to a date with me, that damn confident woman sabotaged it because she still didn't believe I meant my commitment. How do you see yourself in this equation, hopping on the vulture bandwagon?" he asked, feeling his veins throbbing in neck. "She is not some golf club prize of the week."

"Yeah, understood," Jay finally answered sourly and hesitated for a couple of seconds before continuing, "Look, I saw that Karen moved out already and I had no opportunity to talk to her this week, could you give me her number?"

A loud snort left Owen's mouth, wondering what planet this guy had come from. "I'll ask her, it wouldn't be right without her permission. Also I'm sure she'll come by soon, you can ask yourself."

"Ok, I'd appreciate you asking her," Jay thanked and said goodbye.

Owen shook his head, closed the door and turned around back to the bathroom. When he entered the room he noticed sweatpants waiting for him on the toilet so he put them on quickly. Claire also changed, choosing a casual dress over work clothes. She was leaning over the washing machine and aggressively reading into some info on a stain remover.

"Did that bottle do something to you?" Owen chuckled and hugged her from behind, breathing her in.

"I won't give Karen the satisfaction of giving me a washing clothes rant, so either this will work or you'll be going shopping in Zach's shortish pants," Claire chuckled as she eyed him and turned around in his arms. "Were you talking to someone?"

Owen grinned goofily from ear to ear. "Your invaluable neighbor. He came to ask for your sister's number."

"Wow, he really doesn't waste time," she quietly noted and looked like she pondered on something.

"Second thoughts about your choice, Pumpkin?" Owen teased, running a hand down her side.

Claire sighed. "Stop comparing yourself to him, Owen. He may be a CFO and spend his summers in Dubai, but it does not mean I would ever be interested in him," she explained patiently. She put her right hand on his heart and stroked his mustache with her left thumb. "I love talking to you and I love being quiet with you. No one will take that away from me, no one can change it."

A nod was all Owen managed to do after her little speech. When he finally kissed her, nothing felt more like home to him.


	3. Chapter 3

The first day of summer semester came almost out of the blue for the students at the Teaching Zoo. Most of zombified figures, that were roaming school grounds, looked like they were living in different time zones at least. Despite the short break and common lack of sleep, it seemed like everybody in Zooies Program was excited. Students were looking forward to new subjects and more experiences with the animals.

Late gossip added to the excitement. Word of mouth reached Agnes's ears, stating that head of reptiles program, Mrs. Carlson, finally decided to retire. Agnes would lie if she said it upset or moved her at all. Many student legends tied teacher's monthly absences with Salem visits on broomstick. Other stories went a step further and alluded her cold-bloodiness and lazy eye with spending too much time among her reptile pets. Still, she had an unhealthy obsession with her animals. The fixation was deep to the point of never letting students near any paddock. This resulted in long hours of lectures in the reptile class that everybody hated.

That's why anyone taking over this department would be a blessing.

When Agnes arrived for the first lecture whole auditorium was buzzing with speculations about the new teacher.

"What's up?" she chat up to her roommate, Lynn.

"God, I hope this new guy isn't late," the blonde let out an exasperated sigh and looked to the back of the classroom. "I won't be surprised if those idiots are expecting Lady Gaga in full meat suit to materialize in front of the class."

Agnes sat down at the desk and leaned chin on her wrist. "Maybe Darwin himself in TARDIS?" she mused keeping a serious face.

Lynn did not honor her idea with any response, choosing to send her a death glare only.

Both girls were genuinely hoping for someone serious to conduct the subject. The thing that united them from the very first day at this school was respect and care for all the animals, no matter the classification subtree. Lynn earned Agnes's friendship the moment she fished her perky voice out of the newbies crowd. Her loud comments that anybody looking forward to working with cute, little monkeys only was "delusional" were so true.

The current clamor in the class was interrupted with abrupt, heavy whir coming from the parking lot for the teachers.

Someone in the back of the class peeked out of the window and yelled, "He arrived on motorcycle. So cool!"

Agnes raised her eyebrows and glanced at Lynn, who in turn shrugged her shoulders. Not long after a dark-blond man entered the room, carrying an iguana on his left shoulder.

"Good morning," the teacher cheerfully began and approached the desk in front of the class. "My name is Owen Grady and I'm going to be the head of reptile section for next five months at least. And this handsome guy," he paused to point to the iguana at his left shoulder, "this is Joey and he's going to help us today to grasp some basics."

Then the iguana was unceremoniously handed over to the boys sitting in the first row of desks. "Hopefully Joey behaves and doesn't puff at any of you."

Agnes let out a sigh of relief, because this teacher seemed to be far different from being Mrs. Carlson's clone (not to mention charming attitude and good-looking appearance). In the mean time Lynn clutched her phone under the desk. Agnes peeked over her shoulder to see "Owen Grady" being already typed into google. She only snorted, but apparently Lynn found something interesting when a quiet squeal rolled out from her gorge.

"What," Agnes whispered, trying to focus on the lecture.

"He worked at Jurassic World," was her only response, before handling her phone to Agnes.

She didn't have the time to even look at the screen. Agnes heard a rather loud 'Hey, show off!' and she jumped in her seat a little. Mr. Grady was approaching Tom Hensley. Joey, the iguana was sharply but gently pulled out from Tom's hands back into Mr. Grady's arms.

"You cannot hold iguana by its tail only, are you trying to be a zookeeper or next Hitler?" the teacher growled but by the time he returned to his desk his face brightened up. "Joey will take a break from y'all for a couple of minutes, so let's open the textbooks for now."

"Nice Tom," Lynn hissed in boy's direction. Agnes ignored her friend, who kept grumbling every once In a while and opened her book.

The teacher started his lecture, using Joey as his model from time to time. Making the class burst out with laugher all the time seemed easy for him. Listening to Mr. Grady talk was so easy she almost forgot to take notes. Lynn posed an impression that she was enjoying the class very much too. However she kept wriggling in her seat all the time.

"What is wrong with you?" Agnes whispered in her direction.

"I just…" her friend stopped in mid-sentence and shook her had slightly. Then she raised her hand for question to the teacher.

"Yes?" Mr. Grady paused his lecture and looked at Lynn with curiosity.

"Mr. Grady, are our animals anything like the dinosaurs you worked with?" Lynn asked in innocent tone and Agnes could swear she batted her eyelashes at the teacher.

He smiled but didn't answer right away, running a hand through his bordering golden-blond hair.

"Ok, I should've seen this one coming…" he sighed and let Joey down onto his desk. "First of all, please try not to call me Mr. Grady unless you're my girlfriend and want me irritated," he chuckled and Agnes had to try really hard to contain her own laugh at Lynn's lip twitching at this mention. "For those who didn't have the time to google me yet, I worked at Jurassic World until its closure."

The not-so-subtle whispering broke out across the class but the man ignored it as he approached the blackboard. While drawing systematic tree, he continued explaining, "Secondly the pigeon sitting outside our classroom window is closer cousin to a dinosaur than your poor Joey here." The teacher finished his drawing and turned around to pat the iguana on its head. "So in biological sense, not really. But if you mean their attitude and behavior, then I would say… hell no."

Multiple hands shot into the air and Mr. Grady allowed next questions.

"Do you know the woman who let out T-Rex out to fight the I-Rex?"

The teacher smirked widely. "Yes, I do. You can say I was there and my raptors were too."

"What were the raptors like?"

His face dropped for a split second, but the teacher recovered quickly. "Surprisingly intelligent. However, this doesn't make our Joey anything less interesting."

Lynn raised her hand one more time. "Do you miss them?"

"Every single day."

-x-

Time seemed to run like crazy, because before Agnes knew it the exam session arrived. Both Agnes and Lynn fell in love with Mr. Grady's classes and his teaching methods. Agnes quickly ceased making fun of Lynn's little crush on the teacher. In a span of few, short months she grew so fond of the reptile section and subject, Agnes decided her thesis to be about turtles and Testudines order. Though she had one more year ahead of herself at the college to decide that, this felt right.

One week before the finals Agnes finally decided to officially go to Mr. Grady for some blessing and help on the topic. During the consulting hours she found his office in the teachers' part of the college building. Knocking loudly on the doors right away, Agnes did not realize a vivid conversation was going on behind it. Seconds after a pair of green eyes peeked through the smooth glass. Mr. Grady opened the door holding a cellphone to his ear and invited her in.

"Just a sec," he mouthed as he continued to murmur 'mhm's and 'yeah's. "Gretchen, I really gotta run. There's a student to see me."

A torrent of words continued to flow through the speaker and the teacher rolled his eyes in apologetic gesture. When he finally freed his eardrums from the phone Agnes started apologizing about bothering him. He interrupted her right away.

"Don't sweat. Thanks for saving me, truth to be told. My stepmother won't stop nagging me about moving in with her. She lives not 3 miles away from the school, and I keep scampering between here and my life in New York. She's stubborn to embrace the concept of me preferring to wake up by someone else than her clowder of Siamese."

Agnes could feel her ears redden and warm up at teacher's playfulness and openness.

"What's up, what brings you to me?" Mr. Grady asked while failing at organizing his mess of a desk.

Agnes cleared her throat and fired right away, "I wanted to ask you about making turtles my final paper… and for some help also."

Mr. Grady leaned his back against the desk, folded his arms and nodded a couple of times. "Yeah, this makes sense," he replied and pondered for a moment. "I'll be glad to help you out here, but I'll be back in New York for the whole summer most probably. We can communicate through video chat if it's okay with you, but yeah… I really see you in it."

"It's no problem at all," Agnes rejoiced and was about to go into details, when a knock on the open door interrupted their conversation.

They both tuned their heads towards the entrance to see a beautiful red-head in full business look approach them. Something clicked in the young student's head, and she recognized the woman as the Jurassic World operational manager – Claire Dearing. Back in the day her face was all over the news, after the infamous events at the park lead the staff and army to some drastic measures.

"Claire?" Mr. Grady called out and reached a hand out to her as he rose from the desk. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too, babe," the woman mocked and leaned for a quick kiss on the lips to Mr. Grady. "I've got some urgent news and I wanted to discuss it with you face-to-face."

Agnes took a step back and tried looking away, but the view of Claire Dearing kissing her scruffy looking teacher was a bit fascinating.

"I'm sorry, Agnes, this is my girlfriend Claire, Claire this is my best student Agnes," Owen introduced and winked at the girl.

Claire smiled pleasantly and leaned to her for a handshake, while Agnes felt her face flush completely at the compliment. "Nice to meet you, Agnes. I'm sorry for storming in."

"Not at all, I know everything I wanted to, thank you very much," Agnes mumbled and smiled back at the couple.

She was backing for the doors but the teacher stopped her. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I will start some basic outline soon. Bye, Mr. Grady, Ms. Dearing," she confirmed and waved goodbye.

When she reached the seats outside the office she heard Claire chuckle and say in fond voice, "Mr. Grady."

"Don't get me started. Why do they keep calling me that."

"Maybe because your students can't exactly go around calling you by first name?" Agnes heard Ms. Dearing ask with mocking tone.

"At least some call me Mr. G."

"Alright, Kenny G," Claire snorted.

There was a moment of silence, and Agnes felt like she should leave. However, it was so quiet in the hallway that it would be too obvious she was still there. Thus she didn't move, feeling like a total creep for eavesdropping.

"So what's the very important news that I owe this pleasant visit to?" Mr. Grady questioned in low voice.

Ms. Dearing sighed and said carefully, "Owen, they're going after Blue and they want your help as a consultant."

"I see…"

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"Would I make it back for next semester here?"

"I don't think so, probably not, as the board sees you back in raptors guardian position."

A nervous, male laugh followed woman's response. "Are they aware there's only one raptor left?"

"Owen… You don't have to do this."

"No, I feel I will probably need to. I just wish I wouldn't have to leave the kids and school after one semester only."

"We'll try to figure something out together."

A group of students entered the hallway and Agnes finally fled for the school grounds with a sinking heart. She knew Mr. Grady was really fond of his raptors and she was happy he had the chance to go search for the remaining one. At the same time she selfishly admitted to herself there would be no other teacher like Owen Grady.

-x-

When Lynn heard the news from Agnes, her friend cursed like she never had heard in her life. Both of them felt like wanting to do something about Mr. Grady leaving. But there was nothing appropriate that came to their minds – it was the teacher's decision. Feeling helpless, all was left for girls to do was waiting until Mr. Grady announced it officially.

It seemed like Ms. Dearing took some time "off", because she was often spotted around the campus. Sometimes she was alone, trying to do some business stuff over the phone, while waiting for Mr. Grady. She'd be sitting outside by one of the wooden tables. Slightly jealous (but not enviously) Lynn would make fun of the red-headed woman for always avoiding the sun outside and finding shadowed spots. Agnes knew she didn't have anything mean in mind.

Those times that Claire Dearing wasn't sitting with her Venti coffee alone, she had accompaniment in shape of her boyfriend. To Agnes these two looked exactly inversely happy and matched in contrast to the mean comments roaming school corridors. People were generally wondering how such divergent people could be in a relationship.

The rumors were spread by some most dumb girls, which Lynn liked to call "airbricks". According to Lynn they had nothing more than wind bat round between the thin walls of their sculls. She was always wondering out loud how they managed to come up with these idiotic stories, like having an affair with the teacher for example.

Fortunately, the couple seemed to brush off immature behavior of some students. Agnes relieved how naturally they were acting, not trying to prove anything to anyone. She was so happy for them. Lynn even caught her red-handed while taking a picture of them enjoying a quick kiss in between the teacher grading their final exams.

"What?" Agnes nervously asked Lynn. "I just hope someone looks at me this way someday."

"Mhmm… Right, you creep," Lynn agreed in doubtful voice and turned back to her notebooks spread out on the table.

Then an idea struck Agnes. "We could do a farewell party."

"He still hasn't announced his leave though?"

"So just a party? Dinosaur party?"

The moment her friend's eyes lit up, Agnes knew she got Lynn's attention.

-x-

The day Mr. Grady announced the scores the students got in his class, he invited all of them into his office all at once.

After reading all the results he asked everybody to wait before leaving.

"Uh, I'm not gonna beat about the bush, guys. I've been asked to come back to Isla Nublar. I would lie if I said I don't want to use that chance so I guess my announcement is I won't make it back for next semester. I was absolutely thrilled to work with you," Mr. Grady explained and finally dismissed the disappointed class.

Agnes stayed and slowly approached the teacher, breaking through the crowd.

"Ah, Agnes," he exclaimed, clearly remembering something. "I'm sorry about your project, I will try to contact you every once in a while. I'm also in the middle of finding some really good replacement for the position."

The girl shook her head and smiled. "It's okay, thank you." After a minute of silence and reflection she added, "Please, find Blue and make her safe."

"I will."

-x-

Crowning to the last, official day of school at the teaching zoo college was always a big masquerade. This year Agnes and Lynn hijacked the organization of the ball. turning it into a dinosaur-themed feast. Mr. Grady wanted to leave for New York with Ms. Dearing in the morning already, so he could prepare for going back to Jurassic World. Girls went then to Claire and begged her until she agreed to stall Owen for one more night.

The evening came and Agnes was running around the decorated gym, making sure everything was taken care of.

"Will you please stop bouncing off the walls like some idiotic tennis ball on fire?" Lynn observed and handed her a plastic cup with punch. "It's just a masquerade slash farewell party. Soon enough everybody will be drunk anyways."

Agnes eyed her friend with slight irritation, but had to agree. "I know, I know. I just want everything perfect for Mr. Grady's last day," she admitted and smoothed her plum-colored dress. Then she looked to her right and noticed Tom drilling his gaze in her. Agnes was pretty sure she blushed from her cheeks to toes.

"Oh, do you?" Lynn sneered loudly into her cup, following her glance.

"Uh, shut up," Agnes dismissed and waved a hand at her. The same moment she noticed some teachers enter the hall. A bright red-head was standing out from the crowd, announcing their favorite teacher and his girlfriend arrived.

Agnes adjusted the dinosaur-shaped piñata one, last time and slowly headed to greet the teachers.

"Hi!" Ms. Dearing squealed when she saw Owen's students approach them. "Look at these kids, you are so cute!"

"Look at you, aren't you a kids' person lately," Mr. Grady chuckled. He was grinning widely and Claire beamed at him.

Agnes had to admit Claire Dearing was outshining every person in the room. It wasn't caused by her designer outfit only though (Jana from Seniors class was pretty much a train wreck in her mismatched Jimmy Choo's according to Lynn, and she knew her designers so if she said so, she was probably right). True, the red-head looked gorgeous in her black dress with lace back, Mr. Grady's tie matching her blue-violet waistband.

"Seriously, I choked a bit when I saw Ms. Dearing," Agnes would later hear from Lynn.

However, something felt different about the two of them and the good mood that was glowing from both of them infected Agnes. She seriously melted at the way Owen looked at Claire and it caused a small sting of sadness and jealousy rush through her.

"Can I offer you some some Cactus Cooler and T-Rex watermelon?"

Owen snorted and let go of Claire's hand to cover his eyes with palm. "You outdid yourselves, girls, you shouldn't have. I'm not going to war."

Claire groaned quietly with doubt.

"Though it was no problem, Mr. G. We know how much dinosaurs mean to you," Lynn replied with wide grin, while she clasped arms behind her body. "We're gonna announce the Queen and King of the jungle later."

Mr. Grady winked and squeezed Ms. Dearing's hand. "I've got my Dinosaurella right here."

Claire rolled eyes slightly and reminded, "I believe you wanted to break some news, Owen."

"Right," Owen rasped and put down his drink. "I managed to work out a compromise with Jurassic World management and a colleague who would help me out, so I can keep teaching part-time here."

"That's wonderful!" Agnes exclaimed and was followed by satisfied Lynn's shriek.

"Yes!" the blonde girl exclaimed and put on her innocent face.

"Now excuse us, but I do love to torture my girlfriend with some awesome dance moves I got," Owen said and raised his eyebrows, reaching for his mask. "Aren't you glad you're dating me instead of Jay," he teased and confused the girls.

"That ship has sailed according to Karen, quote you snooze, you lose unquote," Claire answered with a sigh and fake anguished expression.

Smiling at the students, Ms. Dearing allowed Mr. Grady to lead her to the dance floor.

"How lovingly weird are they?" Lynn pondered out loud.

-x-

Some hours later Agnes still could not believe how well the night went. Weren't her vacations starting the very next day she would have wished for the party to never end.

Her relationship with Tom suddenly seemed to change so fast she felt dizzy and overwhelmed. While overall feeling the attraction, Agnes was concerned about his personality. He seemed more confident and outgoing than she was used to.

She managed to lose her partner for a couple of minutes and went outside to the garden. After taking in a deep breath of fresh, stimulating air, Agnes noticed Owen in the middle of pretty much same activity. The teacher was obviously contemplating, so her first instinct was to turn around. However he turned when he heard her and smiled invitingly.

"I hope you don't mind the unintentional intrusion," Agnes admitted and leaned against the parapet next to Mr. Grady. "Where's Ms. Dearing?"

"She's got some urgent call, I'm waiting for her."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Agnes muttered.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it." Owen patted her on the shoulder.

"How?" escaped her mouth before she could think.

"Sorry?" Mr. Grady knitted brows.

"How two people like you, so different, are working out?" Agnes blurted out.

"Huh," Owen murmured and went silent for a minute. "I guess we knew our differences from the beginning and while it was hard at first, we both came to accept each other. She's not trying to change me, and I'm not trying to change her. Partnership, you know. Why you do ask?"

"Because it seems so hard to find a person similar to yourself… myself, you know what I mean."

"You won't find one, unless you want to date your clone and bore yourself to death," the teacher laughed. "Seriously, Agnes, if you love someone, you know he's a good person… the differences only make your life interesting. Unless they are insurmountable differences?" he asked in playful tone.

"You're right," she sighed. "It's not like I'm getting married tomorrow."

Owen's eyes widened and he reached into his pocket. "I'm gonna let you in on a secret, just don't tell anyone yet, okay?"

Agnes nodded vigorously right away. Owen took out a small, slightly used up velvet box and opened it. Student's mouth formed a big 'O' and let out a small sound when she saw a simple, yet beautiful ring with a small topaz stone in the middle of it. "It was my mothers and I picked it up from my step-mother this morning. It needs some refreshing though."

"Are you going to…?" she asked the unspoken question.

"When I get back…" Mr. Grady paused. "It wouldn't be fair if she said yes, and I wouldn't come back."

"If she said yes, lord have mercy… she would be crazy not to. Also, I agree that you're not going to war."

"But still, I feel now is not the perfect time yet. Claire is very independent and I wouldn't like her to feel trapped. I don't want to force a positive answer on her."

"But for sure she loves you! Everyone can see that!"

Mr. Grady smiled sincerely at his student once more. "I know she loves me, but nothing rushed ever worked in favor of our relationship. Claire needs to walk her paths on her own before she reaches the same conclusion I have."

"How in the world are you patient like that?" was Agnes's last question, seeing Claire's silhouette emerging from the other side of the soccer field.

"Anything of value in your life is worth the wait, remember that young padawan," Owen added and jumped off the parapet. "See ya, kid. Don't forget to contact me on your thesis stuff."

With that he headed in Claire's direction to meet her in the middle of the field. Apparently the couple decided not to go back and walked out to the street, holding hands.

For an ex-Navy and biology graduate Mr. Grady sure seemed to know a thing or two about life.

-The End-

Thank You for reading and leaving comments on previous chapters. Please, leave feedback once more if you can. :)


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